Filling valve for gas cigarette lighters



INVENTOR 5mi( Projahn BY July 9, 1968 E. PROJAHN FILLING VALVE FOR GAS CIGARETTE LIGHTERS Filed oct. 24, i965 United States Patent O 3,391,716 FILLING VALVE FOR GAS CIGARETTE LIGH'I'ERS Emil Projalin, Nuremberg, Germany, assigner to Gebrder Kllisch AG, Nuremberg, Germany Filed Oct. 24, 1965, Ser. No. 504,623 1 Claim. (Cl. 141-293) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A lighter having a gas tank and a valve extending into said tank and comprising a reciprocable member for controlling the supply of gas into said tank and the venting of air from said tank into the atmosphere, said reciprocable member being provided with a gasket for sealing engagement with an outer surface of the valve housing to prevent the unintended escape of gas from the tank into the atmosphere when the valve is closed, said reciprocating member also being provided with a closing surface for engagement with an inner surface of said valve housing for substantially interrupting communication between the interior of said tank and the atmosphere when the valve is in its fully opening position for filling said tank.

The present invention relates to a filling valve for gas cigarette lighters.

In heretofore known lighters of the type involved, the head or the valve spindle is sealed by a gasket, for instance of rubber, which is fitted into a valve housing and surrounds the valve spindle. In case of dimensional irregularities of such gasket as they may be caused -for instance by insufficient swelling or by shrinking during the production of such gasket, excessive gas loss due to leakage has therefore been possible heretofore.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a filling valve for gas cigarette lighters, which will overcome the above-mentioned drawback.

It is another object of this invention to provide a filling valve for gas cigarette lighters which will reduce to a minimum the loss of filling gas during the filling operation of the valve.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an axial section through a filling valve according to the present invention showing said valve in closed position.

FIG. 2 is a section similar to that of FG. l but showing the valve in half open position.

FIG. 3 likewise represents a section similar to that of F-IG. 1 but with the valve in open position.

FIG. 4 illustrates on an enlarged scale that portion of FIG. 3 which is encircled by the dot-dash circle therein.

The filling valve of the present invention is characterized primarily in that the bottom portion of the funnel member surrounding the spindle shank is provided with a seating surface which in cooperation with the annular bottom portion of the valve housing is adapted to act as a valve and is operable in response to the valve being fully opened to prevent the escape of air and gas from the gas tank into the atmosphere.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, FIGS. l to 3 vshow the filling valve 5 according to the invention as comprising a housing 6 inserted into a gas tank 1 and connected thereto in any convenient manner, for instance by welding. The valve furthermore comprises a hollow valve shank or spindle 3 provided with a head 2 which projects into tank 1. Spindle 3 has a neck por- 3 ,3 91,716 Patented July 9, 1958 "ice tion 3a which is surrounded by a gasket 4, for instance of rubber. This gasket is firmly held on neck portion 3a by head 2 and shoulder section 3b. When the valve is in its closing position, gasket 4` sealingly engages the bottom surface 5b of valve housing 6. As will be seen from the drawing, `valve housing 6 has its bottom portion provided with a passage 7 surrounding spindle 3.

vThe upper portion of spindle 3 has connected thereto in any convenient manner, for instance by a press fit, a filling funnel 8 the lower portion of which forms a sleeve 9 whereas the upper portion has a flaring bore 8a. The bottom end of funnel 8 is designed as seating surface 15 adapted sealingly to engage the inner surface 5a of the bottom portion of valve housing 6 (see FIG. 4). When valve 5 is in its closing position shown in FIG. 1, a spring 10 interposed between the bottom of valve housing -6 and a fiange 11 of funnel 8 presses gasket 4 in a sealing manner against the bottom surface 5b of valve housing 6 to thereby prevent any communication between the interior of gas tank 1 and passage or bore 7.

When for purposes of lling the gas tank 1, a filling bottle B is inserted into funnel 8a and pressed in the direction of the arrow A downwardly with regard to FIG. 1, spring 10 is first compressed to the extent illustrated in FIG. 2 in which gasket 4 is somewhat lifted off the bottom 5b of housing 6. Consequently, gas flows from the lling bottle B through bore 12 in valve spindle 3 and from here through a transverse bore 13 extending in radial direction of valve spindle 3 so that the gas entering bore 12 passes through bore 13 and into passage 7 from where it flows into tank 1 through the now created gap between the bottom of valve housing 6 andthe top of gasket 4. The gas flowing into tank 1 displaces the air from said tank which leaves the latter through the gap between gasket 4 and the bottom of valve housing 6 and passes through passa-ge 7 into the annular chamber 14 housing spring 10 and from there into the atmosphere. Upon further pressure being applied on funnel 8, the seating surface 15 at the bottom of sleeve 9 will eventually engage the inner surface 5a of the bottom portion of valve housing 6 thus preventing the escape of air and of gas from the interior of tank 1 to the atmosphere through annular chamber 14.

If further decompression in the gas tank 1 is required, it is merely necessary to reduce the pressure on valve spindle 3, 8 appropriately whereby a gap is created between the seating surface 15 and the bottom surface 5a.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular arrangement shown in the drawing but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

1. In combination with a gas tank of a lighter, a valve structure which comprises: a valve housing extending into said gas tank and having an annular bottom portion located within said tank and provided with an inner side and an outer side and defining a valve bore therethrough for selective communication with the interior of said gas tank, control means reciprocable in said housing and defining therewith a venting chamber communicating with the atmosphere, said control means being movable from a closing position in which communication is interrupted between the interior of said tank and said venting chamber into a maximum opening position through a partially opening position and vice versa, said control means in said partially opening position establishing communication between the interior of said tank and said venting chamber through said valve bore, said control means including tubular -means provided with a first bore extending in th-e axial direction of said tubular means and being adapted to be connected to a source of gaseous fuel, said tubular means also being provided with a second 3 bore for establishing communication between said rst bore and the interior of said tank through said valve bore when said control means is in its partially opening position and between said first bore directly with the interior of said tank when said control means is in its maximum opening position, said control means also including a tubular member connected to said tubular means for displacement therewith and having one end face which cooperates with the outer side of said bottom portion to seal said venting chamber from the interior of said tank in said maximum opening position of said control means to thereby substantially interrupt communication between the interior of said tank and the atmosphere, said tubular means also including a head portion and a shoulder portion and also a neck portion between said head portion and said shoulder portion, gasket means extending around and being secured to said References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,044,504 7/1962 Iketani 67-7.1 X

3,211,194 10/1965 yProjahn 67-7.1 X

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,329,993 5/1963 France.

LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Primary Examiner.

E. J. EARLS, Assistant Examiner. 

